Hello all,
I recently stumbled upon 2 excellent sterling rings at my local jewelers. Two little gems in a tray tucked at the bottom of a display case. I jumped on them immediately-luckily they fit like they were meant to be.
My main question is about the lapis ring with the mark beginning with TD.
I presume the smaller ring with WJ stands for Waldeck Johnson?
Thanks in advance!
The lapis ring is from Mexico, not Native American. Its letter-number hallmark is typical for Mexican silver, and the last photo shows the stamp MEXICO upside down.
The thinner ring’s shank photo (reverse side) is very indistinct. I pick out a 925, which is not optimistic of it being Native American made, and I can’t decipher beyond that. However, there’s no documented Waldeck Johnson Native American artist despite this attribution by random resellers online. Not in Hougart’s, Art-Amerindien, or other lists. Some people online (Facebook, e.g.) have stated that WJ stands for a company, Waldeck Jewelry.
I did come across this come to think about it. I wonder where the Johnson originated from.
Typically an internet reseller needs a story to flip something and provenance adds value, so they just make something up.
The Origin of the Name
The phrase “Waldeck Johnson” itself is actually a modern internet misnomer (an accidental name blending) rather than a real historic person.
When the company’s peak production era ended in the late 1990s and early 2000s, online resellers on early e-commerce platforms misread the “W.J.” stamp (which stood for Waldeck Jewelers). Combined with the rampant misattribution of the brand’s production line to native Navajo silversmiths, the fabricated name “Waldeck Johnson” took root in the digital space during the late 1990s and early 2000s and has been widely repeated by secondary market collectors ever since
